annotatedamblings

[annotatedamblings]

annotatedAmblings's Homestuck Reread Liveblog: Act 3 (part 1, pages 759-891)

Although liveblog posts will contain analysis due to how we like to engage with media, liveblogs are primarily a collection of whatever thoughts came to mind during our reading. Liveblog posts are constructed with each mod drafting their own live reactions separately before combining them, so some sentiments may be repeated due to both mods noting it down. Any analysis within a liveblog post should not be assumed to be our complete thoughts on the subject.

Blue = Mod Aluria Pink = Mod Jasper Arrows (>>>) are used to indicate commentary on each other's commentary.

Page 759: The whole Egbert family tree kinda fucks me up. Nanna and Dad are objectively the best guardians in Homestuck, and yet their affection comes with an immense pressure to conform to certain societial expectations, especially regarding gender. I know I keep fucking saying it but the whole Crockerbert line is really a potent commentary on suburban culture. Oof ouch my absolute head.

Ah so this is where Dadbert got it from. On another note: first mention of the Beta kids' classpects!

Page 760: WOOOOO Jade time! OMG HI JADE :D

Page 761: Sorry, my bad, I meant WOOOOO Farmstink time!

Page 765:

Jade's handwriting is so 13-year-old girl. I've done this.

Page 768: I only just noticed that her shirt switches symbols even before it's directly acknowledged. "You have quite a number of INTERESTS. So many in fact, you have trouble keeping track of them all, even with an assortment of COLORFUL REMINDERS on your fingers to help you sort out everything on your mind." On my first reading when I got to this, the forgetfulness and many interests resulted in me pogging like :0 I now declare thee ADHD lol (I have ADHD). >One of us, one of us, one of us-

Page 769: Even her loading screen is personalized. I think Jade's direct interaction with Homestuck as a comic is such a great way to communicate how aware she is of certain things. Anyway, I'm making such beautiful music. Trust. >Truly a symphony fit for a king. (A solo player cannot be a symphony.) Silly flute refrain ily

Page 772: I love Jade's weird moduses and I love all the fan speculation on how they'd work. I bet I could find my way around the battleship modus alright.

Page 773: A lot of these goofy game-themed modi logically would suit someone with Jade's level of prescience.

Page 781:

Had a reaction in my bones to seeing this apple. Like that meme of the annoying orange with the face removed where it has an evil presence about it.

Page 788:

Aww, check out the defaced SBaHJ poster Dave sent Jade. Their friendship is so important to me holy shit. Also, the poster for the bootleg Ghostbusters movie the symbol on John's shirt came from!

Page 789: I would have killed for a room like this in like 5th grade. >I would kill for a room like this now.

Page 790:

Hey Jade? I don't wanna tell you how to live your life but that's kind of a lot of uranium to have right by where you sleep.

Page 795:

Tangle buddies!

Page 797:

Let Jade be a furry. Stop trying to take her swagger. First instance of the bit where a character adoringly looks up with their hands clasped while thinking about something. >This always makes me think of Tejuri now I won't lie. >>...Same hat. What getting really into a fanventure does to an mf.

Page 798:

The Manthro Chaps are delightfully uncomfortable to look at. Ew. I think it's rather interesting how lighthearted the tone of Jade's early pages is compared to the other beta kids.

Page 802: "It would still just be a silly girl draped in a raggedy synthetic tufty piece of crap, and seriously who are you trying to kid with that sort of baloney!" God help the trans Jade truthers she would NOT be nice to herself about it. >Homestuck questionably-temperatured take: None of the beta kids would, from the perspective of evaluating the text of the comic, be trans in a way that implies transition before the comic starts. >>Oh for sure. Especially considering John, Dave, and Jade all have mindsets that would cause severe dissonance with them being trans. >>>Transfem Rose is the most likely, but I don't know if it would happen.

Page 803: 1. Seeing a cue ball among her gadgets and knickknacks is one of the many things that hits differently on a reread. 2. Her cookalizer and refridgerator must be so useful... 3. Fun fact the "refridgifyificator" bit is part of what got me into Homestuck. A friend of mine started reading and referenced it in her status so I attempted. Our respective attempts didn't go very far, but then ~9 months later we both picked it back up and finished the comic.

Page 804: "You might consider smashing it, but you are a little superstitious about whatever ominous consequences that might have" new theory for why Vriska is unlucky (kidding). "This is its reply when you ask if it is your friend John's birthday today." Jade. What time is it. And what is your time zone.

Page 805: "The MAGIC CUE BALL on the other hand is said to make predictions with alarming precision and specificity. Unfortunately it lacks a portal on its surface that allows you to view the prediction." Frowns.

Page 807: Girl the uranium. Her ass is NOT following proper lab safety procedures. Idk maybe being a paradox clone makes you built different.

Page 808: This may not be a real flash, but it does roughly illustrate how it would go for me if it was a real flash. I'm not good at memory. >I don't know how good I'd be at it but it would annoy the shit out of me.

Page 812:

I love Jade's >:\ face.

Page 819: Irradiating steak is NOT! proper lab safety.

Page 822: Continuing the trend of at least one mod fanboying over every single song, I really like Gardener. It's so mellow, and it's got a really unique vibe that sets it apart from a lot of the other Beta kids' music, the same way that Jade herself is set apart. >In this blog, we love the OST! "Gardener" is a nice track. Also: looking at her home, it's no wonder she uses transportalizers instead of stairs.

Page 825: Get on her fucking level.

Page 826: TROLLS. Her computer is so cool. Also:

Trolls spotted.

Page 827: Hm so this answers the time zone question. Yeah I think the 8-ball is just shit.

Page 829: Dave saying slurs again. Anyway this is quality Dave, I like seeing how he interacts differently with different people. I'd like to call back on what I said a few liveblogs ago about him seeming desperate to be liked. How he acts a little differently with different people seems to line up with that theory. >I'm not sure if him acting differently around different friends is a reflection of being desperate to be liked or just their dynamics being different. I do not act identically around every single one of my friends because no two friendships are identical. This doesn't disprove your point but it is something to keep in mind. >>Yeah, I get what you mean, and I did take that into account, but there's something about the way they're different, especially in how he talks to John. I can't articulate what I mean without this getting super long, it's a topic for later, I think. Very endearing Dave tangent. Your honor they're friends!!!

Page 830: These are cool. Aggrieve Remix in particular fucks hard. THEY ALL WORK ON MUSIC TOGETHER!!! YOUR HONOR THEY'RE FRIENDS!!! Notably, Jade and Dave are the biggest contributors by a large margin, the other two only have 1 track each, but Jade and Dave make a LOT of music. I would love to listen to all of these all the way but I'm typing this after midnight so it shall simply have to wait for some other time. >I didn't think about that. THEY'RE FRIENDS!

Page 831: "Looks like he was just finishing up some sort of weird tangential intermission here. Whatever it was, it clearly advanced the plot in no relevant way whatsoever." Heh. Foreshadowing.

Page 833: Yayyyy Midnight Crew! This flash fucks. Also, I love the implication both in the past when the Midnight Crew is mentioned and by the fact that this page is referred to as Midnight Crew Act 1031 that instead of writing Homestuck this universe's Hussie put out actual thousands of pages of Midnight Crew over the span of maybe a few months. You okay, man? Did you get possessed? >Possible meta commentary on Homestuck's nightmarish pace. "Dead Shuffle" slaps. Thank you Mark Hadley.

Page 836: This flash is a little difficult to stomach. Dave is absolutely getting wailed on. AND THE FUCKING MENU GETTING CUT IN HALF. He literally has no choice. God. First: The strife options are more numerous and aggressive. And then Bro just cuts through them. Dave gets his ass kicked in a way nobody else has in their guardian strifes. Even the fact that it's a fast-paced animation instead of letting you take time to select an option and see what it does. Fuck.

Page 836: "I require a font of frighteningly accurate yet infuriatingly nonspecific information." If I had a friend who acted like Jade I would also text them like this.

Page 839: Thank you Nanna for healing John.

Page 845: John seems a tad bit hopeless here. Also his text art is cool and he should stop being mean to himself about it. I like the punch card exposition dump but also dang John nice ASCII art.

Page 847: I love the glow of the laboratory light on Rose.

Page 849:

It all comes back to chess. Damn.

Page 851.

1. Is that a fucking griffon. And a sea-goat. 2. We talked about the potential meaning of taxidermy a bit in the past, but I think it's worthy of note that Jade is the only one to really dislike the taxidermy itself. Rose finds it a bit distasteful, but that's a her mom thing more than it's a taxidermy thing.

Page 855: Obviously I remembered the blue ladies, but I did not at all remember the fact that Jade was encouraged to look up to them. Maybe something about Jake's performative sexuality and relationship with gender roles in all this. >Possible topic to add to the list of potential essays. It's interesting to see the alpha kids' colors in these rooms.

Page 857:

First look at Echidna!

Page 859: HOLY SHIT IT'S KARKAT. Oh hi Karkat.

Page 860:

Hehe 413

Page 866:

I find it mystifying that there is no better way to get to these than walking on top of them. That seems like bad design. Also, 4/13 reference.

Page 868:

I think it's cool that the wire can do that. How the fuck can you do that. If I think about this too long my head's gonna hurt.

Page 871: "CAN'T ABSCOND, BRO". Cannot fucking abscond. There is no way out, it's do or die. I am calling CPS! GET HIM OUTTA THERE.

Page 876: Yeah, it's lucky that the biggest one lands in the ocean, but it's still gonna cause, like, extinction event type damage. Because that's how meteors work. Good thing the world is ending anyway! >I think meteors like that are exactly why the world is ending. That's kinda the whole point. :P >>True, but Rose doesn't know that. Or how meteors work.

Page 879: John's strifing skills have improved drastically in an incredibly short amount of time. Good for him! Hell yeah John and Nanna kicking ass!!!

Page 882:

All of this is gonna seem like chump change after the business adventures of one Dave Strider.

Page 883: "You can't wait to find out what amazing items this new supply of grist will be just barely insufficient to produce." lol

Page 885: Calling back to what I said earlier about the game not letting Rose take away John's agency and what that might mean. SBURB is in the business of creating heroes, perhaps by force, and it expects those heroes to do it through their own strength alone, which is interesting, considering Homestuck is fundamentally about friendship. >Except John doesn't do it through his strength alone. Nanna and Rose still help him even if Rose can't physically manipulate him. It wants to create a new universe and a pantheon that can cooperate while still being strong as individuals. Under SBURB's logic, John needs to go through the steps to become a god himself. But just because he needs to grow himself does not mean that he has to do it entirely alone. With SBURB as adolescence/growing up, you have the people around you to help, but you still need to become an adult yourself. Alternatively, one could view this as a way SBURB can be criticized - forcing children to grow up, take on the responsibility of parenthood, and complete quests representing their growth into functional adults well before they're emotionally or cognitively ready. >>This is true, and I love how interconnected everybody is, but I don't think SBURB is an inherently benevolent entity. I get what you're saying, though. Hmmm... Must put more thought into this at a later date.

If you've read all of this - happy 4/13 from annotatedAmblings!

[annotatedamblings]

HAPPY 4/13 TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE! Later today the first liveblog of Act 3, where we meet Jade, should drop :D

[annotatedamblings]

annotatedAmblings's Homestuck Reread Liveblog: Act 2 (part 4, pages 635-758)

Although liveblog posts will contain analysis due to how we like to engage with media, liveblogs are primarily a collection of whatever thoughts came to mind during our reading. Liveblog posts are constructed with each mod drafting their own live reactions separately before combining them, so some sentiments may be repeated due to both mods noting it down. Any analysis within a liveblog post should not be assumed to be our complete thoughts on the subject.

Blue = Mod Aluria Pink = Mod Jasper Arrows (>>>) are used to indicate commentary on each other's commentary.

Page 636:

Oh hey a fun little reference to Dave's earlier ire.

Page 637:

John has been launched into space. Sad!

Page 640:

KO'd John my beloved. Good thing Rose caught him or the timeline would be so fucked. >Wouldn't be the stupidest way the timeline has been fucked up, probably. >>Even in canon we have John getting himself killed via the whole jetpack thing.

Page 643: John has been doing a lot of fighting and things have generally been fairly high-energy, I don't blame for him for wanting some shuteye. The reasoning for why SBURB works the way it does is so interesting. Rose thinks that the reason she can't move John is because it's "thieving you of your free will as an adventurer, and the need to advance by your own skill and ingenuity" which is. There's something there, but I don't know what yet.

Page 644: Me when I go to sleep in a normal and non-plot-relevant way that will not come up at any point.

Page 646:

Hahaha, remember when discs were something people used. On laptops. And you could use them? Idk where I was going this this was gonna be an enshittification jo- wait. Looking at it. I need to check something. ...okay so this is how I find out that my laptop has had a disc drive this entire time and I just didn't fucking know what it was. Anyway after looking at that keyboard it appears to be a Macbook.

UPDATE A BIT LATER IN THE DRAFTING PROCESS: I asked an IRL friend who knows a decent amount about Apple machines and it most closely matches an iBook G4! Idk if that's intentional but neat! >Stitching Aluria here: quite a few people literally still use discs why did I go on this tangent.

Page 649:

FUCK

Page 651: JADE SILHOUETTE YAY Oh what a fun sequence to introduce how the clouds work for Pros- JADE?

Page 652: I remember being perpetually confused and suspicious of Jade early on my first reading. I understand why Jade won't tell him anything, but I do get John's frustration in this instance. The stakes are much higher now, you can't just withhold information and expect no one to be pissed about it.

Page 660:

It's over Anakin, I have the high ground!

Page 665: 1. "Upward Movement (Dave Owns)" slaps. 2. this is so... habitual for him. This is so intense and then there's a moment right as Dave gets to the roof where he just looks so small. Kinda puts things into perspective in a painful way. Anyway, 2x psyche out combo is sick. Hi WV.

Page 666:

heheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh Tetris Effect boy XP

Page 668: I'd argue that the rotten pumpkin here isn't a true MSPA pumpkin. Cuz we know where it went.

Page 677:

You ever think about how WV is a traumatized veteran revolutionary leader? I do. WV makes me so sad all the time.

Page 680: That ain't a human in that book of human etiquette. Also, I forgot how hard they hammer home the point that he's literally starving to death. Poor guy. >A couple of liveblogs ago I was like "hey do you think he has food insecurity-related trauma" and now it's like oh that's just fucking canon.

Page 681:

Torture.

Page 683:

It is NOT useless for opening cans. I'm gonna lose my shit.

Page 685: Can town!

Page 686:

:( >:(

Page 687:

In this household we respect WV and his anti-monarchical swag. Hey WV, buddy? You wanna talk about it?

Page 688: Is that thing radioactive.

Page 689: It IS radioactive. And he ate it. Okay. Cool. >Maybe he's just built different. Not like he has a pesky human physiology. >>Fair. The narration does call this decision stupid, though. >>>He can have uranium. As a treat. It's enrichment.

Page 703:

I like this sequence's early look at the Incipisphere, including the players' Lands. Very cool! I love it when WV uses his imagination to invent things that surely don't exist! >Hehehehehehehehe

Page 708: I FORGOT THAT PRESSING TAB OPENS THE TAB CABINET. >It sure is a tab button.

Page 710: WV is now dying slightly less of thirst and starvation! :D >Actually iirc soda can dehydrate you a bit. Don't quote me on that I'm not a doctor. Oh wait i have the internet I can fact-check. Okay yeah so the sodium + caffeine can fuck you up in those amounts. The sugar would also do that but Tab is a diet drink that is not sweetened with sugar. >>Okay, then he's dying slightly less of starvation! Wait, it's a diet drink? Nvm he's fucked.

Page 715: GET ZAZZERPANNED. >WIZARD JUMPSCARE. Remind me to do a panel edit that gives him big naturals later. >>HAFHSDHGBS

Page 721: "[S] WV: Lead your men to victory!" is very whimsical. "Vagabounce" is fun to listen to, and it's nice to see him having some fun despite his unusual circumstances. Chess :] I'm glad he's having fun, but, like- the countdown doesn't worry him at all? >Tbf it's not like he can do much. If all you can really do is worry and get distracted, the distraction is a much better option. >>Okay, fair.

Page 723: YAY PM ILY PM Hi PM :}

Page 735:

JESUS FUCK I DO NOT REMEMBER THIS LINE. This man is literally a former revolutionary leader with political opinions and mental health issues and the fandom likes to make him Davekat's uwu buddy because 'carapacians can't talk', something that is both extremely ableist and also untrue??? >Fanon WV makes me sick. They don't even call him his name :{ >>Fanon is usually the enemy. This is why I have yeeted myself back into a room with the source material. >>>It's an honor to be in the room where fanon doesn't happen. Hm. Okay. And I'm just supposed to think this is normal? Cool.

Page 743: I can't remember if this is a carapacian thing or a WV thing but I think it's cool that "uncanny ability to gauge distance" is just a trait he has. And that it's implied to be because chess. >How else is one supposed to know how many spaces you can move forward at once?

Page 746:

I think previously Jasper has mentioned parallels with how John and WV both view themselves as stupid. :( He is so mean to himself. So is John. He's also mean to John. Wondering if there's a connection there. >Same fucking wavelength.

Page 750: Hi Serenity :] Yay! Serenity!

Page 753: Amused deeply by the fact that Serenity's morse code here just says "LASGO". Short + sweet. >No it says "LETS GO" but the difference between "ET" and "A" is a matter of spacing so if you don't pick up on the spacing it's an easy mistake. >>Ah, my bad. Weird how I managed a translation fail that still reads right.

Page 755: He tried to leave but couldn't make it. :( Oh well, it's important for him to be able to meet the other exiles later. :D

Page 756:

CACKLING.

Page 757: "[S] WV: Ascend." wowed me the first time, and it still does! "Explore" is a breathtaking track, and in addition to the visuals of the exiles and Earth in the future and past, it's harrowing to see the Lalondes' actions amidst the flames. I also like the look at the various activities of the three guardians. Truly a great end for Act 2. If you've been reading our posts, thank you for tagging along with us in the lead-up to 4/13. Oh god. Yeah. Ascend's got everything. Genuinely I had to watch this twice. God. Wraps everything up quite nicely, doesn't it? I don't know if I have any other particularly wise commentary other than that it again emphasizes how small Dave is and how big Bro is in comparison, just to really drive the fucking point home.

[annotatedamblings]

annotatedAmblings's Homestuck Reread Liveblog: Act 2 (part 3, pages 533-634)

Although liveblog posts will contain analysis due to how we like to engage with media, liveblogs are primarily a collection of whatever thoughts came to mind during our reading. Liveblog posts are constructed with each mod drafting their own live reactions separately before combining them, so some sentiments may be repeated due to both mods noting it down. Any analysis within a liveblog post should not be assumed to be our complete thoughts on the subject.

Blue = Mod Aluria Pink = Mod Jasper Arrows (>>>) are used to indicate commentary on each other's commentary.

Page 535:

BATHTUB ATTACK Wheeeeeeee

Page 537:

Dave is going through it.

Page 539: There is no circumstance in which John going into his father's room for the first time in his entire life isn't significant. Even if it's exactly what he expected, he's not going to look at his father the same after. >He doesn't know anything about his father, and this would be a pretty big look at what Dad is actually like.

Page 542: "From now on it will probably go without saying that you'll nab any grist lying around without making a big fuss over it." About time.

Page 545: Baby pictures! Genuinely, though, this did not ever click with me the first time around. I forgot about it. >Same! Oh hey, news coverage of John's birth meteor.

Page 546: Aluria mentioned to me once that Dad Egbert was very supportive of his kids in a very gendered way and I- yeah. Yeah. This is really gendered. >Further context: I was discussing in the context of a (now-discontinued) AU of mine, and how Dad's parenting affected an unrealized and later closeted June, however the characterization of Dad Egbert in that AU was intended to feel true to canon. I had noted the existence of instances like this - the repeated emphasis of this idea "you are my son and you are growing up into a man." On a different note: I think it's interesting how this safe implies that Dad Egbert was planning to tell John about his origins someday.

Page 547: You know how I keep harping on about the suburbian value of things (and people) exclusively serving the purpose that they were meant for, and of things to remain eternally stagnant and the same because the way they are is the way they're "supposed to be"? SBURB turns that on its head. You're supposed to lift the safe, find the code, open the safe. The safe is broken. The code is useless.

Page 549:

That didn't just fly out of John's sylladex. It went hurtling through the air at a kajillion miles an hour.

Page 552:

NYOOM.

Page 557: "TAFT-JAMMER" the echeladder rung names are all good but this one made me laugh out loud because we JUST covered that in history class. >I didn't notice that lol. This is funnier now than it would've been when I first read Homestuck because now I... *checks notes* know who the fuck that is. >>The benefits of rereading Homestuck after taking US history.

Page 560: This isn't rocket surgery, John. it's not that hard to walk up narrow stairs. You literally just have to turn sideways. >Do it yourself, smartass. >>I feel like at this point you're just asking me to play SBURB with you. I won't fall for your tricks. >>>Oh fuck no. I'm not playing SBURB with you. I'm also not playing SVURB with you. I'm not playing any SBURBlikes because I'm not stupid. I'm just asking you to climb a staircase that narrow yourself. I think it's doable but hell. >>>>I used to live in England, and we were subscribed to the organization that lets you visit all the centuries old castles at a discount. I've climbed stairs almost that narrow. >>>>>Comment rescinded. Nice.

Page 562: "You know this drill all too well. Trouble's a brewin'." Say it with me folks, "I'm used to it" are the four most bone-chilling words in the English language. >Oh, Dave...

Page 565: Reminds me of that one Winnie the Pooh comic. I don't know what it's called but you're on Tumblr right now, reader. You know of what I speak. >What the fuck are you talking about. (forgot) >>I wouldn't even know where to start looking for it but they fucking. Shot Piglet or something. >>>What the fuck. A fucking Billy the Puppet version of Kermit. I don't remember if I got the reference on my first reading, but. lol(???)

Page 567:

Billy the Puppet is weirdly prevalent among Bro's collection for how irrelevant the actual puppet is to those movies (at least, as far as I've watched). >I've watched a bit more of them, and he isn't really that relevant, but he's very notable iconography. However. Could you fucking imagine if Bro had a puppet of John "bisexual" "Jigsaw" Kramer. Or Amanda Young. Or Adam fucking Faulkner-Stanheight? Hm. Saw character puppets. Recreating Saw with puppets. Muppets Saw. My thought process is so very normal. Who is the obligatory single human actor. >>Amanda. >>>MANDYYYYYYYY also somehow while I was typing that I forgot the earlier Billy Kermit with the Muppets riffing anyway AMANDA YOUNG I LOVE YOU

Page 570:

Wretched. Get out of there. Also, there's literally no excuse for Bro here because those cameras are hidden. It's literally just him and Dave and I guess Lil Cal in this apartment. If a camera is hidden, it's being hidden from Dave. >Oh god that's an excellent point. Get him out of there.

Page 574:

Do I even need to say it? GET HIM OUT OF THERE.

Page 577:

Sylladices are not real and yet when I read pages like this my kneejerk reaction is to go "yeah, that's being written realistically" because this is the type of bullshit that would happen if we had to equip stuff! >Sylladices are not real but people are!

Page 582: The last few pages have been sylladex bullshit. I love sylladex bullshit.

Page 583:

No, no, Dave, please elaborate on where you store your gaming abstraction. I'm sure that won't make my head hurt.

Page 589:

Remember when I said I love this stupid fucking modus? This is why.

Page 591:

Oh hey, more fun with syl- BRO STRIDER JUMPSCARE.

Page 593: Quick meta update, you can tell Homestuck was really starting to get big, because Hussie actually posted a link to a fanmade COMPLETE BULLSHIT site on the newspage and Homestucks flooded the server so badly it crashed. >Damn. I am not surprised considering how this fucking fandom crashed THREE sites when "[S] Cascade." released.

Page 595:

Frowned. How the fuck did I gloss over this on my first reading.

Page 597:

The way he just. Fucking stands there. It's getting me.

Page 603:

This is terrible for the pipes. Think of the pipes, Dave.

Page 604:

This is such a funny gif. Click on me and look at my thought bubble while I'm still hyperfixated on Saw and it'll be this inside. >You're bouncing him around in there.

Page 605:

Ohhh. That's why. Slaps page 567 me over the head. You (Dave) have no taste. >I feel like I can pardon his lack of taste in this instance because Dave basically lives IN a Saw trap and I think that would turn me off of those movies too. >>OH. YEAH THAT'S A GOOD POINT. "Hello Dave, you must attempt to beat the shit out of me and do one billion flippy tricks or you are going to be grievously injured."

Page 609:

The fact that it happens in slow motion...

Page 612:

One, haha nice, 6/12. Two, more Dave Anguish. Three, why and how does Broseph fucking Strider own functioning batarangs. >It's Bro fucking Strider are you surprised? >>Fair enough.

Page 613:

Poetic justice.

Page 615: I wonder if John and Dave's urge to build pillow forts is exile related. I don't remember where I first saw the commentary that this is consistently a thing that carapacians do, so credit to whoever pointed it out, but carapacians are in the habit of building little forts.

Page 618:

God, alchemizing used to be so tedious.

Page 625: First appearance of the rocketpack.

Page 629: The center picture that just has the caption "Harry and I never speak anymore" is getting me.

Page 630: The book giving John the idea for AND combination is genius tbh.

Page 633: Why DID Rose make a bunch of hammers? I know she's a fuck around and find out person but this really cannot be accomplishing anything. >Possibly by accident?

Page 634:

The iconic and beautiful pogohammer <3 POGOHAMMER ACQUIRED!

[annotatedamblings]

completely fixed now :D

i fucked up when editing the most recent liveblog. fixing it

[annotatedamblings]

thanks Jasper. the formatting isn't perfect but the correct title, disclaimers, and the read more has been added. i can fix it later

i fucked up when editing the most recent liveblog. fixing it

[annotatedamblings]

managed some kind of miracle (opened tumblr in browser) 🤘

i fucked up when editing the most recent liveblog. fixing it

[annotatedamblings]

fun fact when i stitch the liveblogs together i do it by copying one of the drafts' contents into the other and editing. sometimes i fuck up. somehow my connection is good enough to make this post but not good enough to edit the liveblog

i fucked up when editing the most recent liveblog. fixing it

[annotatedamblings]

let me fucking fix it Tumblr. please. please. Tumblr please. i beg of you. 🥺

i fucked up when editing the most recent liveblog. fixing it

[annotatedamblings]

i fucked up when editing the most recent liveblog. fixing it

[annotatedamblings]

annotatedAmblings's Homestuck Reread Liveblog: Act 2 (part 2, pages 388-532)

Although liveblog posts will contain analysis due to how we like to engage with media, liveblogs are primarily a collection of whatever thoughts came to mind during our reading. Liveblog posts are constructed with each mod drafting their own live reactions separately before combining them, so some sentiments may be repeated due to both mods noting it down. Any analysis within a liveblog post should not be assumed to be our complete thoughts on the subject.

Blue = Mod Aluria Pink = Mod Jasper Arrows (>>>) are used to indicate commentary on each other's commentary.

Page 388: Fucked. Also hi Maplehoof. Aggrieve slaps but goddamn Rose. The fucking empty suicide threat. "Ironic negligence" is a move her mother uses. Not on the level of Dave, but it's still a bit more serious than John's Strife with his dad.

Page 393: Lol John on the floor. Fun fact, this Flash and the other Flashes depicting John in this fight were VERY VERY ANNOYING to document on our spreadsheet with all the Adventure Map chunks. Another fun fact: we have a spreadsheet. I made it. It has Homestuck divided into chunks based on the Adventure Map, the page numbers, page counts, acts marked, and Flashes within each chunk marked with the name, page number, and a brief note on what sort of Flash it is. Anyway Act 2 was annoying because of a bunch of little Flashes. Once I edited the sprite of John on the floor to instead to be a character from my favorite MSPFA for the sake of a forever weed meme. It's a really good edit. Also all Showtime variants are fucking awesome. >Everybody say thank you to Aluria for his hard work and insane math. This liveblog couldn't exist without that spreadsheet and all the other shit he does behind the scenes. >>Managing this shit is fun for me. Enrichment. Somehow

Page 404: Look who's all grown up and mercilessly killing imps.

Page 407:

Bunnykind!

Page 408: And you know this how? Kids these days get into one strife and think they're Jackie Chan. "No self-respecting strifer would be caught dead without one." Bestie you didn't even have an allocated strife specibus like an hour ago.

Page 414: It's weird how much taxidermy comes up. That's probably symbolic of something. >This could possibly be tied to the observations we've made about John and fear of change, even though here it's popping up in the context of Rose. Taxidermy acting as preservation, and the taxidermied bodies are viewed as unsettling. Rose playing the game to see if her cat could be revived, taking the still dead and turning them back into a living form that can change. >>Also, differentiating John from his peers again. Rose's childhood cat is taxidermied. Dave's room is full of dead animals. Jade. Dead animals are not associated with domestic stability (<- Deranged way to put it but I think I'm onto something)

Page 418: Not to be a clown on main but I'm not on main. I quite like this whimsical music. >Nannaquin moment. Hi Nanna.

Page 419: I think it's interesting how frank Dave is with Rose. Literally, bringing up the puppets is nothing significant. But on a deeper level, I see it as a first step to him questioning if his Bro is as great as Dave thinks he is, something we don't see him doing in earnest for several more acts. I don't think he'd admit he doesn't like the puppets to anyone else. I dunno, man. I like their bond. >Later Dave kind of admits it through the moment on page 537 where he changes his mood to rancorous, but that's definitely not the same kind of vulnerability, and could be read by John as simply him getting annoyed by the 'obviously' dumb puppets.

Page 420: First of all, nice. Second of all, thinking about John "suburbia and stagnancy" Egbert being compared to his father? Psychic damage. Especially considering, y'know. That's a trans woman.

>Such a nice little comment that hits like a truck when you're viewing it through the lense of June.

Page 422: Yet another great tone-setting flash for Nanna's exposition. Skies of Skaia is a beautiful track. This is one of the pages that wowed me early on in my first reading. Thank you Mark Hadley.

Page 425: "A QUEST OF FUTILITY THEN. ==>" :(

Page 427: This is played off as kinda funny, kinda sad, but god... once you become a hero in the eyes of the game, that's really it, isn't it? It's all consuming. >You can never go back to your childhood innocence. I remember going O_O on my first reading when I learned that nope, we are not saving the world, it is fucked! We're doing something completely different! >Yeah. I don't think we talk enough about how wild this twist is. Yes, the world is ending. No, you can't save it. You have other shit to do.

Page 430: "JOHN YOU DO NOT SAY NO TO COOKIES. I COMMAND YOU TO GET THEM" hey so i know this is a funny moment but do ya think WV could have trauma related to food insecurity? >Ough. Yeah. I'd say it's pretty likely.

Page 432: "you're not even sure where you found the time to write what's already there!" How DID she find time to write it? It's been, like, an hour, and she spent most of that server playing for John or running around her house. >I'd make a joke about her clearly having better time management skills than us but she played the violin while her friend was in danger. Maybe she's just really good at multitasking.

Page 434: So mean to him and for why.

Page 440: Rose honey you can't use that many asides in one sentence it's nigh unreadable. >I tried to identify which sentence you meant and couldn't. Can you point out which one? >>Second paragraph, I believe somewhere in the middle? She's talking about prototyping. Two sets of parentheses, a pair of dashes, and at least one forward slash. If I tried that in my 10th grade English class I think I would have been murdered on the spot. >>>Located the quote. Rose. C'mon.

Page 442: I love it when Jade is mysterious and cagey.

Page 446: I don't know about a Mr. T puppet, but Mr. T cabbage patch kids are real, btw.

Page 448: This isn't normal. >:( The Striderian use of 'irony' is fascinating.

Page 450: Not baby Gonzo, man. This entire apartment is just so, so sickening in retrospect. >I went to look at it and what the fuck???

Page 458:

Looks like shit king. >I tried to look at the contents of each column, but even looking at a still frame was too much headache.

Page 460:

This is so incredibly blatant. Get out of there, man. >I considered adding the panels on this page but eugh no thanks.

Page 461: "But on rare occasions, when your guard is down, it all seems just a tad unsettling to you." Dave does a really good job at repressing his emotions about how fucked everything is, but it still leaks out sometimes. Smokes a fucking cigarette.

Page 465: I would also flip the fuck out. Even if Bro and Dave's apartment weren't the monument to child abuse that it is, I can't say I'm much fonder of puppets than Dave is.

Page 472: "Also, I should probably warn you that your house and yard are completely infested with monsters now. Try to be careful." Should have led with that. Kind of important.

Page 473: John got so mad he briefly became British. Not really, but I've never heard an American say that someone was "mucking up" something.

Page 476: I am no good at this flash but who cares. Also this music goes hard. This remix of Harlequin has no right to go this hard while playing over something this silly.

Page 477:

F in chat for John's piano

Page 481:

The destruction of John's bathroom continues.

Page 484: You should really take your Nanna's advice to heart, John. Rose clearly did.

Page 485: I really do love that they've all read SBaHJ. >Your honor they're friends. :] >>They're friends!!!!!

Page 487: "Dads love shaving. It's basically all they do." The recurring John theme of things having singular and necessary purposes starts to extend to people. Particularly Nuclear-Family themed in this instance, which i don't believe to be an accident.

Page 490:

"The circle of stupidity is complete." Nice.

Page 492:

Fuck yeah.

Page 499:

The "knocked tf out" stance doesn't stop being funny.

Page 503: Everyone say congratulations to the fridge it worked very hard for this. >Congratulations.

Page 507: WV's politeness is delightful.

Page 510: "It should be noted he was kind of a weird guy anyway." ROSE.

Page 520: Time for alchemy.

Page 522: Again, I love Rose and Dave's dynamic. They're very silly. I like the puppet poem. This page has it all. Rose being silly and rapping. Dave covered in smuppets in a manner that is rather comedic but horrifying when you consider his age and the fact that they are sex toys. The phrase "acrobatic fucking pirouette off the handle".

Page 531: What was the term Aluria used to describe some of the game mechanics early on? Quaint? This is quaint.

[annotatedamblings]

annotatedAmblings's Homestuck Reread Liveblog: Act 2 (part 1, pages 248-387)

Although liveblog posts will contain analysis due to how we like to engage with media, liveblogs are primarily a collection of whatever thoughts came to mind during our reading. Liveblog posts are constructed with each mod drafting their own live reactions separately before combining them, so some sentiments may be repeated due to both mods noting it down. Any analysis within a liveblog post should not be assumed to be our complete thoughts on the subject.

Blue = Mod Aluria Pink = Mod Jasper Arrows (>>>) are used to indicate commentary on each other's commentary.

Page 248: Starting off strong with the first appearance of WV :D WV MY BELOVED WV YAY YAY YIPPEE CARAPACIAN SWEEP

Page 249: "My introduction will be sparse" who do you think you're fooling? "I will not do the bullshit", she said, while doing the bullshit.

Page 253: Though all the flashes are obviously playable in some way, this is the first one I consider a "game". We see a fixation on things having to stay the way they are again, briefly. Also worthy of note: WV being... the way that he is to John ("THIS BOOK IS TOO BIG FOR A YOUNG STUPID BOY"), as well as the very childish artwork that's apparently from a week ago (it's maybe a stretch but I'm calling it evidence for my "John is stuck in stasis due to a fear of change" theory). First walkaround game!

Everything is different now. Ruined emblems of childhood. Also: WV's distaste for the harlequin stuff hits different on a reread. >God, yeah. There's that pesky "cast out of Eden" metaphor again, arguably.

Page 263:

He's sad. :(

Page 264: I just think John's relationship with WV (and players' relationships with the exiles in general) is interesting. I haven't even put together if there's any deeper meaning to this. >I think there is but there's not much we've seen of it so far.

Page 271: I am a simple man I see WV I say yippee. >Yippee!

Page 272: "So your cruxtruder is ticking. Do this to live." I know in my heart that Rose has a passion for melodrama and absolutely jumped at the opportunity to write this line. HOWEVER. That does not change the fact that it goes hard.

Page 285:

Nannasprite ily >She's such an icon.

Page 287: This is worse than I remembered. Boos him off stage. Ah yes, classic shitty Striderian rap.

Page 290: THE FUCKIGN CAR.

Page 291: I love how at the end of 289 Rose says "Otherwise I promise I'll handle the car with velvet gloves." and then this shit happens on 290. John is so D: about it, too.

Page 293: Hiiii Jade. I know we've already seen her but not for long we haven't.

Page 294: Obligatory you can't be saying that white baby. Like. Like you really can't. Stop it white baby. >STOP THAT WHITE BABY Ah. Yes. Dave using a racial slur.

Page 301:

I like this gag because there was literally no reason whatsoever for this to be the case.

Page 305: The diagrams, retrospectively, make a lot of sense. Damn it this comic is detailed.

Page 307: This flash fucks. We get Rose's equivalent of the title page, which also has this act's name: "Raise of the Conductor's Baton."

Page 309: White woman jumpscare. Sorry, I mean cool dude jumpscare. No I don't. >It would be a White girl jumpscare, actually, because of the 'being 13'. Give her time. I believe in her. >>Denial is her second language. I don't think she'll transition until she is in fact old enough to be called a woman. At the earliest. (Incredibly unserious). >>>Ya think Rose ends quietly mentally placing bets on which of the kids will will figure it out first for shits and giggles? June vs. Dave (but girl) vs. Jane (idk what he would change his name to or if he would do that) vs. Lara FIGHT! >>>>She fucking would. My money's on Lara, and not just because I love her. >>>>>Lara "i don't wanna be a man" English vs. June and Dave "extremely repressed" Egbert and Strider? Yeah that checks out. Idk about the shot Jane has at winning the race but I think he'd probably need a bit to work through some of that shit. Mayhaps this should be an essay topic.

Page 312: Can we talk about how much of a hipster and a tryhard early comic Dave is? This isn't a complaint about this trait I just think it needs to be acknowledged.

Page 315: "you might as well wipe out human civilization with a meteor or something ridiculous like that which will probably never happen" we are being blatant with it now.

Page 318: His refusal of sincerity only hurts him. It hasn't really done so yet, but this panel hints at it, I think.

Page 319:

I love this stupid fucking sylladex.

Page 323: Interestingly, Dave's Pesterchum client has more mood options than John. I went back to look, and John has Pesterchum 6.0 installed, while Dave has 7.0. Neat! The bit where all of the options are variations of happy except for rancorous is preserved, though. >:0

Page 325: One, the idea of a review of a review magazine makes my head hurt. Especially when the magazine is GameBro and the review reviewer is Dave Strider. Two, there's something to be said about the fact that he agrees when John mocks GameBro, but posts an objectively super positive review of it online. It reeks of wanting to be liked and I know because I've done it. Also, fun fact, this is inexplicably a looping gif. It could just be that every gif in homestuck is looping, I can't remember, but this one definitely is.

Page 326: Hell yes, SBaHJ time. Also, the Homestuck Unofficial Collection becomes visibly of lower quality when SBaHJ is open, which is cool as fuck. I don't want to try to make Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff more meaningful than it is, but I do think you could argue that Dave is trying to make himself seem more mature and "adult" than he is with overt sexuality. Or maybe that's just how 13 year olds are. Regardless of whether or not I'm spewing bullshit, the amount of sexuality in SBaHJ is noteworthy considering Dave's home situation. I sound like a fucking parent teacher conference. Anyway. SBaHJ is so fucking quotable and I know because I quote it regularly. >Never underestimate the ability of middle schoolers to shitpost. Or for them to be weird with sexuality. Or for the shit in their lives to pop up in the things they make. Many things can be true at once. >>Once again these chararacters are exceptionally, tangibly 13. I told you about stairs, bro. Fun fact: I got one of my brothers to read Homestuck, he's like 400-something pages in, but when we got to SBaHJ he took the time to read every single SBaHJ page.

Page 328: AYO MIDNIGHT CREW. For the longest time I thought CD had like a beak or something but no he just has his tits out. >HELLO? >>Yeah due to the pure light and shadow I misinterpreted his boob window as a weird beak. It is not. He has his tits out. God bless the carapacians.

Page 332: Homestuck is more than twice the length that Midnight Crew was when Dave declared it to be too long. >He is a coward who will not survive the winter. Wait technically he didn't. Survive. Dozens of times over. But this was well before the winter.

Page 333: Rose and Dave banter is always a highlight. Rose and Dave's first conversation, and it starts with her calling him gay.

Page 335:

Goo is happening.

Page 338: This flash is fun. It's fun! Everyone knows this flash is fun. Fucking around with the sampler is fun. >I think it's really funny how many times we said the same thing unprompted in this one. We're on the same wavelength. >>Friendship bonus

Page 344: Puppets AND Dave idolizing Bro? Pain. "Is there anything not awesome about your BRO? No, you think not." augh.

Page 351:

Isn't it so cool how we have to jinx good things all the time.

Page 355: Oh hi seppucrow.

Page 357: ZAZZERPAN JUMPSCARE

Page 358: I've been Zazzerpaned. I feel like now I have to Zazzerpan three other people to be unZazzerpaned.

Page 360:

I really like this face that Rose makes. It's very interesting to see the way Rose interprets all of her mother's gestures as spiteful or like there must be some trick when like. Nope. She just likes wizards.

Page 363: The pretty princess doll is too big to captchalogue... how quaint.

Page 369: Can we appreciate this incredibly one-sided game of oneupmanship for a second?

Page 370:

Classic.

Page 373:

Rose what the fuck.

Page 376: A SECOND WHITE WOMAN JUMPSCARE HAS HIT THE TOWERS. I knew it was coming and it still startled me.

Page 379: Damn Rose the youth roll is quite the acrobatic feat. She must have a lot of experience doing it.

Page 382:

First Dave and Jade conversation! It's very cute. Dave's smile of like. 3 pixels?

Page 384:

I like the way objects are animated leaving sylladices.

Page 386: The callback to the "in case things get too hot to handle" remark :( also generally dropping hints about what Bro is like. Eugh.

Page 387:

He's right behind me, isn't he?

[annotatedamblings]

annotatedAmblings's Homestuck Reread Liveblog: Act 1 (part 2, pages 126-247)

Although liveblog posts will contain analysis due to how we like to engage with media, liveblogs are primarily a collection of whatever thoughts came to mind during our reading. Liveblog posts are constructed with each mod drafting their own live reactions separately before combining them, so some sentiments may be repeated due to both mods noting it down. Any analysis within a liveblog post should not be assumed to be our complete thoughts on the subject, and we are not particularly experienced with analysis.

Blue = Mod Aluria Pink = Mod Jasper Arrows (>>>) are used to indicate commentary on each other's commentary.

Page 127: I love the way objects (and people) tend to bounce around during some animations.

Page 129: I think there's probably something there about how early on, Homestuck involves the destruction and desecration of John's childhood room - an important space. Of course, it's primarily just humor - sylladex shenanigans are fun - but I do think there's something there related to the coming-of-age aspects of Homestuck. >Especially since a lot of that destruction is necessary to move forward. Like expanding the room so Rose can reach John's PDA.

Page 137: I will not be hearing anything bad about the Sburban Jungle flash at this time. Yeah it's kinda lame but it also fucks. Fun fact, I used Sburban Jungle as background music for a joint 3D Modelling and Physics project I did earlier this year. FUCK YEAH SBURBAN JUNGLE. Reading Homestuck for the first time was rather neat for me because I really like The Sims. Even though there's not a lot to this Flash, the music is a banger and the text with the loading bar at the bottom reminds me of being a kid on my mom's laptop waiting for The Sims 3 to load lol

Page 141: There is no way she didn't do that on purpose just to see if she could.

Page 142: Coloring error. John's shirt is Jane cyan in the second panel :0 >:0

Page 147: I just think this page is cute. The fact that Rose decides to put the bunny back in the box. The face John makes when she does. It's cute. Aw. It's cute how (in-universe) Rose gets a little silly with the bunny. I like John's little smile :].

Page 148: This panel has me thinking about how weird it would be if you were a Sim and suddenly your house had been renovated in the span of a second.

Page 151: I like how all the Sburb machinery looks so needlessly complicated and clunky. Too much sci-fi is smooth and sleek. Give me contraptions. >The humble contraptions...

Page 154: Thinking about how John knows literally nothing about shit like fetch modi and strife specibi at the beginning. I know it's because readers are meant to learn about these things from him, but it hits different when you think about how different his childhood was from all his friends. Like what Aluria said last time about it being depressing that Dave knows so much about strife specibi. John doesn't know this stuff because he never had to. >I think each kid's knowledge of sylladex mechanics at the start fits very well for them. John had the most 'normal' life, he is kind of the audience insert here, he doesn't know as much. Dave knows a lot about sylladex mechanics including strife specibi and (iirc) effective weaponization of a standard sylladex because he has to. Because his life is shit! Rose is a very curious person, she's the Seer of Light, it makes sense that she would want to learn more about sylladex mechanics, including unusual modi, regardless of whether she has to know it. Oh. R-slur jumpscare. Gotta love 2009. :\

Page 158: Serious Business is one of my favorite early on bits.

Page 160: I love Rose using psych talk to fuck with people.

Page 161: "This isn't very cautious of you, actually." lol.

Page 163: I like the silly little moments of them fucking around and finding out with Sburb, like with this and the bathtub later.

Page 166: I was going to scold John for literally jumping down a fucking hole (he could break his bones!) and then realized I would probably do the exact same thing if not for my fear of heights.

Page 167: "You think it's cool that things don't always have to be a federal fucking issue." I don't have any commentary it's just one of my favorite lines and nobody ever mentions it. >I also love this line. The phrase 'federal fucking issue' lives in my head.

Page 171: Rose's preferred method of learning is "fuck around and find out".

Page 173: Why were you going to put the bathtub in the driveway to begin with? Hello? >ToT It only now occurred to me that. Rose. What the fuck are you doing. Truly a moment of the characters being subject to the whims of the forum prompts.

Page 174: The dialogue is so good here. People always mention "EB: tell me what is wrong with this picture" but no one ever mentions "TT: Yes. Cake, jesters, unfaltering love and support. TT: Quite a road to hoe there." Also, first mentions of Rose's home situation. I feel it's interesting how she's so blunt about Mom's failures as a parent, especially in comparison to Dave's complete denial that Bro has ever done anything wrong. >I think part of it is the very different natures of Rose and Dave, as well as the different natures of their home situations. Dave is frequently actively in a dangerous situation and is actively being manipulated, whereas Rose's mom is an otherwise doting mother who's just kinda shit in one very particular (and major!) way. Dave can't really risk unpacking All That, a fight is a constant threat. Rose manages to get away with a lot more avoidance and more generally has time all to herself where she can think. Perhaps this is a potential topic for an essay. >>They're so fuckt up.

Page 177: Hell yeah it's Sburbin' time. >My favorite part is when John said "it's Sburbin' time" and Sburbed all over the place.

Page 186: We already mentioned this last time I think but I love Harlequin as a track. It's so Videos Game. >Thank you Mark Hadley.

Page 187: "EB: we don't have time for this asinine tomfoolery. TT: This unmitigated poppycock? EB: extravagant hogwash! EB: ok stop EB: stop typing whatever silly thing you're typing" this is what's happening behind the scenes of this blog at any given time. >True! This post has been fact-checked by real annotatedAmblings mods.

Page 195: Damn I sure wonder what that could be. Surely it's not an indicator of impending doom.

Page 196: Here's where shit starts getting real.

Page 199: In John's defense, I would also attempt to ingest a unit of build grist. >Remind me to never play Sburb with you. >>There are many reasons not to play Sburb with me. I'm bad at video games and generally not athletic. Also, you shouldn't play Sburb just as, like, a general rule. >>>It could be worse. It could be Sv- *gets shot*

Page 204: The infamous Dave meteor monologue :} >PLANET FUCKING JUPITER. DAVE TANGENT!!!

Page 208: What the fuck does John do every day that Dad is relatively unfazed by a bathtub in his hallway? >Maybe he just has more serious business. Like baking another cake. Could you imagine. Five cakes. That's as many as five. Dadbert is remarkably chill about stuff like the stray toilet and tub.

Page 214: HI ROSE :D

Page 222: "Nice time management skills there, sweetheart!" Mean to her :{ >Oh so when the narrator is pointing out her friend is dying and she needs to move on it's bad to be mean to her but when you advocate for a character dying in a piece of art i make it's just payback for a curse. I see how it is. </INCREDIBLY UNSERIOUS> "Nice time management skills there, sweetheart!" Okay but Aggrieve (Violin Refrain) is literally a good song so it's worth it.

Page 225: "At least, that is how you have come to interpret the gesture in retrospect." She wasn't always at war with her mom. >Sometimes a once nice parent-child relationship degrades over time as a child begins to recognize the flaws in their parent, and the parent can't, won't, or simply doesn't know how to fix their relationship, leaving the child to deal with the weight of the parent's failures. >>It's tough realizing the people who raised you aren't who you thought they were, but that's a topic for several acts from now. >>>Yeah.

Page 229: This is so funny on the reread. She literally just likes wizards. >God forbid a woman have hobbies.

Page 231: Hi Momlonde.

Page 232: Depressing. >Mood.

Page 234: "Oh the things you'll do to help out a friend." Girl his life is at stake.

Page 238: I like Rose's little smirk here. Iconic. >Yeah! Very classic Rose expression.

Page 239: Little 413 easter egg spotted.

Page 240: Using [sic] in casual conversation goes hard.

Page 245: I don't intend to make a habit of mentioning the newsposts because they're not part of Homestuck but I do feel the need to point out that in this one Hussie points out the absolutely breakneck pace at which Homestuck was updating at the time. This bodes excellently for her mental and physical health in the future, I'm sure. >So fun fact there's a statistic I came up with and started calculating in the context of attempting to mathematically track the increase in speed of the creation of an MSPFA I like called "Days per page". I calculate it by taking how many days since a webcomic started running as of the time of a specific update, and dividing it by the number of pages at that time. The idea is to calculate how far apart updates would've been if the addition of each page was perfectly spaces apart. A normal webcomic with an update schedule that isn't completely fucking deranged can be expected to have a DPP that is. Y'know. Greater than 1. Act 1 ended June 7th, 2009, 55 days after the comic started, and it has 247 pages, giving it a DPP of ~0.22. AKA the average gap between new pages during Act 1 is less than 5 1/2 hours. This is somewhat alleviated by the amount of sprite usage and the forum game aspect, but that's still a LOT of writing, and asset creation, and animation for the gifs, and the FLASH PAGES, some of which are interactive and/or have sound! Jesus fucking Christ no wonder Hussie eventually burnt out. (For the record, the DPP for HS as a whole is ~0.31.) >>This particular news post hit hard because they literally said that they had somehow managed to post with the same frequency as they had with Problem Sleuth despite Homestuck being significantly more difficult to produce. How. Why. >>>Christ. It's a bit of a miracle Homestuck got finished.

Page 246: Obviously, we all get the Bible symbolism here, but I had forgotten that John taking a bite of the apple was right as the meteor hit. Even more Biblical symbolism than I thought, then. I mean, is he not essentially being cast out of Eden (Earth)? And he can never go back, cuz it's gone. >Partake of the fruit of knowledge, enter the game that is a symbol of growing up. Loss of innocence. You can't go back to when you didn't know.

Page 247: End of Act 1!

[annotatedamblings]

in honor of Act 1! 🎉

[annotatedamblings]

we decided to draw some headcanons and ships we like! ^-^

I'm really proud of these! Btw I think there should be room in the fandom for people who have never read the comic :3

sorry. happy April Fool's. consider this a sign on the metaphorical building of this blog saying Cronkri shippers will be shot. gonna cleanse my soul by working more on the reread after this since we got distracted for a few days #adhdprobably #dammitajax

Additionally, Crotuna shippers will be put in my saw trap #modjasperhasaonetrackmindatthemoment. Calling Lara a man was so draining.

[annotatedamblings]

Really charming banner art and pfp! Im excited to see you twos thoughts!

thanks Kit :D

Aw, thanks! We won't let you down :)

[annotatedamblings]

annotatedAmblings's Homestuck Reread Liveblog: Act 1 (part 1, pages 1-125)

Although liveblog posts will contain analysis due to how we like to engage with media, liveblogs are primarily a collection of whatever thoughts came to mind during our reading. Liveblog posts are constructed with each mod drafting their own live reactions separately before combining them, so some sentiments may be repeated due to both mods noting it down. Any analysis within a liveblog post should not be assumed to be our complete thoughts on the subject, and we are not particularly experienced with analysis.

Blue = Mod Aluria Pink = Mod Jasper Arrows (>>>) are used to indicate commentary on each other's commentary.

Almost immediately, I'd like to take note of the usage of color (or lack thereof). The house is mostly white. I don't have any smart comments on this right now but it is an interesting stylistic choice. >Liveblog stitching! Aluria here, I think I was thinking about how it could relate to the feelings of isolation I touch on later in this post.

Page 9: It took way too long for any of this sylladex shit to be even remotely comprehensible to me the first time around. Am I stupid. >No, sylladex mechanics can be a bit tricky to get to, something which narration on multiple pages acknowledges.

Page 10: It's fun to see sylladex shenanigans :]

Page 16: A thing I always liked about the suggestion format is how subject the main character is to the player's dumb fucking whims. I like that about point and click adventures also. >Checked what page is page 16. F in chat for Zoosmell Pooplord and the unwanted desire to shit on his desk.

Page 18: It just occurred to me how the manner in which the sylladex mechanics are encountered via the reader prompts fucking around and finding out really is like a video game without much tutorial.

Page 19: "Films about impending apocalypse fascinate you. Plus, a black president??? Now you've seen everything!" 1. I like the funny foreshadowing 2. ah yes... a tongue-in-cheek ironic joke that feels a little distateful.

Page 22: I do find the Homestuck Beta to be an incredibly charming little gag.

Page 24: the names of his programming projects on his desktop are a fucking MOOD. "FUCK FUCK FUCK" indeed. John's desktop is just like mine fr. I believe I have an audacity file somewhere titled "fuck my life", and our screensavers are equally bad and weird. >Clearly experiencing emotions best conveyed with the word 'fuck' is a universal experience of creators.

Page 26: I think one of Homestuck's strengths is how it pulls off making the dialogue of teenagers feel like the dialogue of teenagers. >THIS. Always this. There are many times that I as a Real Teen (TM) have read a page of Homestuck and gone "yeah, I've had this conversation in real life."

Page 31: Genuinely deranged collection of games. John's bad taste knows no bounds. Also why do you have Bard Quest on DVD. Why would you put Bard Quest on a DVD. It's literally a browser game that's like 100 pages long. >Actually it's 47 pages. That makes it worse.

Page 34:

Infinitely amused by the mood settings in Pesterchum. "happy :) happy :) happy :) happy :) happy :) INCREDIBLY PISSED D:<"

Page 35: Dave is acting as a tutorial npc Me when I fucking lie. Dave honey no one wants you. I'm conflicted about Early Homestuck Dave because he very much fulfills the role he is meant to and sets up his later character arcs perfectly. But he does so by annoying the fuck out of me. >See you're right about that second sentence and it makes perfect sense in context but out of context that sounds so mean lmao.

Page 37:

I could look at the kind abstratus for hours. Also, the planning had to be insane for this. Literally every strife specibus used in Homestuck, no matter how out there, is on here (I think. I only did a quick scan). >Decided to attempt to verify this by looking for all the trolls' strife specibi and immediately failed with Aradia's whipkind. I am sending Jasper to Autism Hell for the crime of being wrong. >>I am being set on fire! Sad! (But hey, there IS still a lot of very specific canon strife specibi in there that I'm willing to bet were there on purpose. Canekind, for one). >>>If I had to hazard a guess, it's possible that some of them were either picked by looking at that page, or just that there are so many potential weapons on there that of course some made it on. In some cases planning ahead may have occurred, but I am not Andrew Hussie so idfk.

Page 39: "EB: yeah, that's fine i guess. i can't imagine it's going to be all that relevant." heh. the fact that Dave knows more about the minutiae of sylladex mechanics, in particular how strife specibi work, takes on a more depressing tone when you contrast his home environment with John's healthier parental situation.

Page 48: First Betty Crocker mention! fun fact once i infodumped about Homestuck to my dad and now the Batterwitch is a running joke we reference whenever we purchase Betty Crocker products. Genuinely surprised the Betty Crocker Wikipedia article isn't protected at this point. >It isn't, but if you go to the talk page it seems like it's been a point of contention before.

Page 50:

"It doesn't matter that it's April and not terribly chilly outside. In a home, a FIREPLACE needs a fire, because that's what FIREPLACE is for. A fire BELONGS in a FIREPLACE, dammit, cata(ptcha)gorically, at all times, without exception." fascinating quote in conjunction with Page 27's "In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle. That is to say, HE CAN HARDLY BE CONSIDERED A TERRIBLY PROPER GENTLEMAN AT ALL." certain things simply must be the way they are. So there's a lot to be said about the whole fireplace thing but I've had time to ruminate and I'm starting to notice that John seems to have a pretty rigid worldview, maybe? I'm collecting data on this and I don't wanna speak too soon, but a lot of these lines seem to have the underlying implication that he's very much of the opinion that the status quo is not to be questioned or challenged ever, and things are the way they are because that's how they're supposed to be. In perpetuity. Forever. Even if it hurts you. You can see it in the recurring gag on this page and the one with the tire swing; you can see it in the way he talks about his dad; hell, even his joke book is a kajillion years old and described at one point as being at times super racist because of its oldness, as well as being too big to carry around or navigate efficiently. This is an especially fitting trait for him to hold considering he's from the suburbs. Not only are suburbs considered the picture of the American Dream, that idyllic image has historically been upheld through forcible exclusion of anyone who didn't fit into it. No wonder it took her 16 years to transition. >More than 16. :( >>Oh yeah I'm sure it's like. Decades (I haven't read HS^2). But it's been 16-ish years since Homestuck came out.

Page 51: Burn fucker burn.

Page 56: not much comment other than the transition from 55 to 56 and the bit that comes with it got the first audible giggle of this reread!

Page 63: I genuinely believe Rose is a contender for funniest character in Homestuck (speaking only in terms of intentional funniness). >It hasn't had much chance to come up yet, but she is rather silly wrapped up in a dry exterior and I think this fact should be acknowledged more.

Page 68: kinda funny to see John unable to captchalogue the doll because it's 'too big'. Act 1 feels rather quaint on a reread. >Genuinely. By act 6 we're captchaloguing literally whatever the fuck. Planets and shit. >>The fucking Tumor. >>>The fucking Tumor. Gotta get that HTML right. >>>>Oh I'm sorry Formatting King Jasper lemme just format all over the place. Trans women are really cool. That sentence only looks correct if you're on dark mode. sad!

Page 71: Is that. Is that the fucking Cirque de Soleil.

Page 74:

a continuation of the bit regarding the tire swing and the fireplace. this combined with John's willingness to commit to the bit even when it is unpleasant is rather fascinating for his character.

Page 77: FIRST [S] PAGE! "Showtime (Piano Refrain)" is a great song that also hits really different on a reread. Ah, but that is a subject for... *checks notes* 7021 pages from now. >You and your music commentary making me straight up melancholic all the time.

Page 78:

"The peanut gallery over there sure is getting a kick out of it. You are allergic to their scorn." I am unusually fond of this joke. Page 72's mention of John's peanut allergy was a funny enough moment on its own, but the additional reference/pun? Delightful. The jorker.

Page 79: The usage of a Hi-C commercial also hits different on a reread.

Page 82:

"You have a feeling it's going to be a long day." Oh, if only you knew... Homestuck's title page! I love how desolate the audio is, and I think the prose on this page adds to the feeling of isolation. Isolation is a theme throughout Homestuck, and with John as the Heir of Breath in the incredibly isolated environment of suburbia... ah, I just really like this page! This page is also where Act 1 gets its name on the adventure map: "The Note Desolation Plays." There's literally nothing I can say about Windchime Foley that isn't abundantly obvious but GOD does it set a tone. It's the first real hint that this is more than just a silly little adventure comedy.

Page 89: "Your DAD sees right through your costume! You don't know what you were even thinking with this foolish ruse!!!" early example of a recurring pattern of John viewing himself as stupid, foolish, etc.

Page 90:

There isn't much to this Flash, but I do like the animation, and "Showtime (Original Mix)" is a banger. The vibe with John and Dad's strife is SO different from the next two strifes. For obvious reasons (Dad Egbert is a good father). >True! It's very unserious. John is aggressively rejecting his father's cake, for fuck's sake, meanwhile Rose pulls out the empty suicide threat against her mother parrying with alcohol and Dave is. Dave.

Page 110: "TG: im wearing them ironically TG: because theyre awesome TG: the fact that theyre ironic makes them awesome" ah yes the classic "i'm totally doing this ironically and not sincerely".

Page 111: I do enjoy the meta bullshit of the characters being MSPA fans in-universe. Tragically, Midnight Crew will never finish because of the world ending. Sad!

Page 112: I <3 Self-Referential Jokes

Page 122: I should go back at some point and do a cake count of just how many goddamn cakes John's dad made. >I checked. 4. 2 in the room, 1 downstairs, 1 he was actively baking. 4 cakes for 2 people. If June came out to him in a no-Sburb AU every pharmacy stocking HRT in the area would be in crisis mode.

Page 125: Sorry but I will literally never stop finding sylladex failure funny. PDA BANISHED.